5 Important Ancient Scientific Contributions By Indians

Indians are famous not just for men new fashion, gourmet cuisines and yoga but also for the sharp mind, world over since time immemorial. Albert Einstein once said “We owe a lot to the ancient Indians, teaching us how to count. Without which most modern scientific discoveries would have been impossible.” Going beyond the new trend in fashion men, we present you the 5 important scientific contributions by Indians that have helped to shape up the world, where we live today.

1. Zero

Everything comes to a naught, every beginning has an end, yes the very basic of mathematics was contributed by the well-known Indian mathematician Aryabhata, who was was the first person to introduce in the world the concept and a symbol for zero. He was the brain behind the mathematical operations like addition and subtractions that initiated using the digit, zero.

2. Binary numbers

The language of the contemporary world has its origin in the ancient India. The language of set of two numbers, 1 and 0, the combinations of which are called bits and bytes was actually first mentioned by the ancient Indian Vedic scholar Pingala. Pingala in his book Chandahśāstra, the earliest known Sanskrit treatise on prosody clearly includes the use of the binary numbers.

3. Measurements

The ancient Indian Harappans civilizations are thought to be highly advanced in terms of construction of building, structures and colonies. Varying measurement techniques were used using linear measures made from ivory and shell. Even the minutest subdivisions were measured with amazing accuracy! Excavations have also revealed that the bricks had the dimensions that correspond to the units on these measurement systems.

4. Numbers

As early as 500 BCE Indians were using various symbols that denoted various numbers from 0 to 9, later it spread to the Arabic system and Hindu numerals were called Arabic Numerals. These notations were used in almost all trading practices in the ancient times.

5. Decimal system

One of the best contributions by Indians was the decimal system that expressed all numbers by means of ten symbols, the ingenious method was used by ancient scholars for astronomical purposes, they solved complex puzzles with ease and precision using this ancient decimal system.